Thompson Wants All-Female MCU Film

October 25th, 2017

With Thor: Ragnarok set to storm the Box Office with the full support of critics no less, it certainly seems that Marvel has another hit in their hands. Ragnarok is being hailed as the best Thor movie yet thanks to the work of its director, Taika Waititi. But there's another reason why the film is getting such positive word of mouth and that's the female power in the film. Both Cate Blanchett's performances as Hela and Tessa Thompson's performance as Valkyrie, have been noted as the highlights of the movie. So it makes sense why Thompson would want an all female Avengers-esque movie to be made.

Thompson Wants A 'Lady Liberators' Movie

Speaking at a press junket, the Thor actress explained that she has asked Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige about an all-female superhero movie, featuring all the female characters in the Mcu.

Valkyrie lead an all-female team in the comics. [Credit: Marvel Comics]

According to Playlist, the actress said:

Recently I marched up with a couple of other women who work in Marvel and [asked Kevin], 'how about a movie with some female super heroes? Like all of them'.

Kevin Feige, too, recounted the incident, adding:

It was a pretty amazing moment to be somewhere and have your shoulder be tapped and turn around find every female hero we have is standing there going, ‘How about it?’ And I said ‘yes'.

Thompson explained that there's certainly precedent for this in the comics, reminding the press of the Lady Liberators — a team which has included the likes of Valkyrie, Wasp, Black Widow and Scarlet Witch over the years.

The Lady Liberators in 'The Avengers'. [Credit: Marvel Comics]

Those who are familiar with the comics may know that the group was first formed as a joke in a single-issue comic in 1970, when feminism was on the rise. Since the writers of the comics at that time were predominantly male, they introduced an issue that was supposed to take a dig at the feminist movement. The Lady Liberators did not so much as get their own comic, and were instead used to mock the idea of women working independent from men. Valkyrie at this point was presented as a villain, who manipulated the women into splintering off from the Avengers, thus leading to their downfall.

Yet, despite the Lady Liberators' satirical origins, it would be fantastic to see these heroes team up on the big screen — especially as all of them now exist within the MCU. In fact, for Marvel to make this their first all-female team-up movie would be an ironic twist to the satire, and a giant middle finger to the original comics' sexist undertones.

Despite Marvel having some of the best female characters in comics today, the MCU has largely been bereft of women leading its films. With Captain Marvel set to grace the screens in 2019, and the ladies of Marvel finally meeting in the Infinity War, there's no reason why the superheroines couldn't team up in the future, especially considering the current trend of the genre towards female empowerment.

The Marvelous Women Of Marvel

The 'A-Force' cover. [Credit: Marvel Comics]

That said, Marvel Studios has a long history of sidelining its women. Despite the flourishing MCU, the comic book company has yet to finalize details on a Black Widow film. Natasha Romanoff is easily one of the best written Marvel characters (more so than Thor or Hulk) and the decision to not give her a solo film has been baffling fans for years. What's worse is that while studios like Sony and Warner Bros. are trying to find ways to bring more women of power onto our screens, Disney's Marvel has been content with Captain Marvel being the sole female superhero movie on its slate of upcoming movies — after dozens of male-lead films have driven the franchise.

But it's not just about the Lady Liberators. Marvel could also unite its female Superheroes under the A-Force banner, an all-female team that debuted in May 2015 featuring characters like Captain Marvel and She-Hulk. Not only would this team riff off the success of the Avengers and offer something new to the superhero genre, A-Force could also introduce much-loved character like She-Hulk to the MCU.

So far, Marvel has not seemed very interested in promoting its amazing female heroes onscreen and if the Lady Liberators moves ahead, this will signal a change in Marvel Studios' strategy. Till then, all we can do is hope that the comic book juggernaut realizes just how big of an opportunity it's wasting by refusing to showcase the vibrant women of Marvel on screen.